How are Meet Fees set?

The bulk of your athlete's meet fees are set by the team hosting the meet. These fees are listed in the Meet Information document posted as an attachment to each Meet page on our website. Each athlete entered into the meet typically incurs:

  • Pool Fee

  • per Event Fee. Note: some hosts charge a flat Event Fee, regardless of the number of events an athlete enters

  • Relay Fee for each Relay Team Entered (if the coach enters your athlete into relay(s))

  • Occasionally: Team Entrance Fee

Host team fees will vary with the meet venue. For example, the cost of renting a local high school pool is less than renting a venue such as VMAC.  Each host team is also required to pay a fee to Colorado Swimming for every single entry into every single event.

Additional fees are added by each team attending the meet for their own swimmers. Aspire Aquatics, like all guest teams, incur operational, administrative, and coaching costs to attend meets. For this reason, you will also see an Aspire Meet Fee on the meet entry page for each meet. 

  • Aspire Meet Fee $15 flat

New in 2022-2023, the Aspire Meet Fee for all in-state meets will be a flat $15 when you enter your athlete into the meet. This is charged whether Aspire or another team is the meet Host. This flat fee does not change regardless of the number of days or races the Meet offers (1 day/1 session or multi-day prelim/finals). This is to create predictable cost for families, and as well, incentivize our swimmers to race as many events as possible during the meet in order to grow their competitive experience.

For those who have come from prior competitive year-round teams, you have paid this fee in the past. Unfortunately if you were on another team, it may not have been transparent, and families were invoiced without having any prior knowledge of the breakdown of the meet costs.  It is standard practice for year-round teams to charge swimmer entrance fees associated with attending meets, whether their team is hosting or is a guest. We at Aspire have chosen to be transparent in these fees so that our families know exactly what meet costs are.

Why do the Meet Fees vary?  

The complexity, length and venue of the meet drives the fees for both the Host team and the Guest teams attending the meet. A single-session meet costs less to run than a multi-day preliminary/finals meet.  Host team fees are dictated by time on deck, venue rental fees, security, janitorial costs, etc.  Guest fees (ie. Aspire Meet Fee) are set as a flat fee or determined by coaches’ time on deck, team entrance fees, travel costs, administrative work for entries, etc.  For example, the DU Pioneer Open is a three-day preliminary and finals meet. Our Aspire coaches will be on deck 12+ hours each day Fri/Sat/Sun as there is a morning Preliminary Session for 12&O, a mid-day Timed/Final session, then Finals in the evening.  Further, hours of work go into working on and communicating about entries.

But we pay dues and had that registration fee….

Your monthly dues and registration fee support the team’s daily operational activities.

What happens when I have signed my swimmer up for a meet, but then they cannot attend?

Meet entry fees are non-refundable once the meet entry deadline has passed.  When the entry deadline hits, and entries have been submitted to the host team, Aspire is responsible for paying for each swimmer that is entered into the meet. Unfortunately, if the swimmer becomes ill, or cannot swim for any reason when the meet happens, we cannot refund any fees.  Please do not contact the host team regarding a refund.

How are Meet Fees charged?

Meet Fees are charged to your account by our team meet administrator and are listed on your monthly Aspire invoice.